


ghosts of memories

by amuk



Series: Clearing Skies [7]
Category: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Families of Choice, Family, Father-Daughter Relationship, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Introspection, Lies, Loneliness, Loss, Memory Alteration, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-18
Updated: 2016-04-18
Packaged: 2018-06-02 23:23:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6587347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amuk/pseuds/amuk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He sleeps and dreams and even there he cannot escape reality. --Aerith, Cloud, Tifa, Barret, Red XIII, Vincent</p>
            </blockquote>





	ghosts of memories

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: I paraphrased a bit some of the scenes. :/ Also, haven’t played crisis core, so as far as I know, Aerith hasn’t met Sephiroth and when they think he’s an ancient, she believes that.

 

  1. **Return Trip**



 

“We can’t go back, can we?” Aerith asked, looking back at the city as they made their way through the rocky terrain.

 

Tifa gaped at her in disbelief. After all they had to go through to leave Midgard, there was no way they’d be able to go back. Not right now at least. “No.”

 

“Too bad.” Aerith sighed.

 

“Did you forget something?” Tifa asked, worried.

 

“No...I just, I wanted to say goodbye to my mom. But I guess I can’t do that now.” Aerith looked back at the city again, troubled.

 

“Oh.” Tifa stared at the ground. She never got to say goodbye either, three years ago.

 

Had she even managed to see her father that night? She couldn’t remember now, the fire and smoke clouding her memory.

 

“But…” Tifa gave Aerith a wan smile. “You can always come back and do it later.”

…

…

…

…

  1. **Expression**



 

Cloud recalled that night in flashes, in bits and pieces that barely connected with each other. He remembered blood and fire, remembered carrying Tifa’s limp body. The shock of betrayal had paralyzed him at first, the sight of her injuries spurred him to action.

 

“And that’s what happened,” Cloud concluded, looking at the group.

 

Looking at Tifa, he started to doubt his memories. Something didn’t feel right and her expression only confirmed it.

…

…

…

…

  1. **Lies**



 

 “I came with Sephiroth to Nebilim three years ago,” Cloud started.

 

Tifa stared at him. His story wasn’t wrong, not really—everything he said played out perfectly to her memory.

 

But he hadn’t been there. That wasn’t his story but Zack’s.

 

“Cloud…”

 

“Yeah?” Cloud asked, pausing his story.

 

“Nothing,” Tifa lied, biting her cheek as she looked away. The truth of that day laid heavy in her chest but she had no idea what it meant.

…

…

…

…

  1. **Friends**



 “Sephiroth…” Cloud muttered, clenching his fist as he recalled that night. They had been friends, once.

 

They had been friends and now they were enemies.

…

…

…

…

  1. **Deception**



 

“Tifa.” Cloud went next to his friend, grabbing her wrist when she tried to leave. “What is it?”

 

Tifa frowned, yanking her hand free. “It’s nothing.”

 

“You’re hiding something.” He had seen her expression when he had told the story, had heard the tone of her voice when she spoke. Cloud had said something wrong, he was sure of it. Even his own memories seemed a little hazy, a little off, but he couldn’t tell why.

 

Not on his own at least.

 

“ _It’s_ _nothing_ ,” Tifa repeated.

 

“Tifa,” he said sharply. “Please.”

 

She bit her lip and turned around. “I just need some time to think it through. Ok?”

 

Her shoulders shook and he didn’t force the matter. “Ok.”

 

In the meantime, he’d have to figure it out himself.

…

…

…

…

  1. **Extinction**



 

 “So you’re the last one,” Red XII muttered, staring into the fire. Aerith smiled sadly at him, nodding. “Me too.”

 

Aerith looked up at the stars. “We’re all that’s left, then.”

 

Red XII laid his head in the dirt. It was strange, thinking of the word extinction and applying it to himself. More so when using it for the girl next to him.

 

“I guess that means we have to live for all of them,” she added.

 

He snorted. “Then we really shouldn’t be fighting like this.”

…

…

…

…

  1. **Possibilities**



 

So he was an Ancient like her. Aerith blinked, the idea strange. Another Ancient. For so long, she had thought she was the only one.

 

But she hadn’t been. The voices she heard, they were not hers alone.

 

It was too bad she couldn’t have met Sephiroth. She would have liked to meet him, even just once. Before he had changed. Maybe she could have helped him, if they had. Maybe he could have helped her.

 

Either way, it would have been nice to know she wasn’t alone.

…

…

…

…

…

  1. **Rebirth**



 

 “Sephiroth.” Cloud stared at the man in front of him, the man who had been missing for three years.

 

Cloud had thought he was dead. That this former friend, this destroyer had been dead.

 

“No….” Tifa wasn’t sure why Sephiroth was playing this game with them, why he was pretending to go along with what Cloud said.

 

He knew the truth as much as she did. And one way or another, it would come out and she could do nothing to stop it.

…

…

…

…

  1. **Line in the sand**



 

“I will destroy everything.”

 

Cloud stared at Sephiroth, stunned. This wasn’t his friend, these words were not his. This was a stranger.

 

“Sephiroth?”

 

The man turned to him, his eyes cold.

 

Cloud’s heart sank, it was too late then. He should have pulled Sephiroth away from those books earlier—he knew something had been wrong.

 

Instead he had failed his friend.

 

“Sephiroth?”

 

But it no longer mattered what he did or didn’t do. His friend had been lost for a long time and there was no going back.

…

…

…

…

  1. **Curse**



 

He shouldn’t be here. Barret stared around him, at the people he once knew and the home he had lost.

 

“You.” A villager stared at him, disgust in his eyes. “You’re back.”

 

A survivor, another person he failed then. He swallowed the shame, the grief, and took a step back.

 

There were no apologies he could give. He couldn’t even say his path had been the right one—in trying to avenge one village, he had destroyed another one.

 

“Barret.” The villager spat out his name like it was a curse.

 

And maybe, just maybe it was.

…

…

…

…

  1. **Fork in the road**



 

Dyne stood in front of him, a bitter smile on his face.

 

It was easy to see the path he took, the path that Barret could have taken. The person he could have been.

 

But he had Marlene. He had Marlene and he couldn’t let himself die, not like this, not here.

 

Not for this ghost of a man.

 

“I’m sorry,” Barret said, tensing up for a fight. He should have died back then, should be dying now instead of Dyne.

 

But for Marlene’s sake, he would live.

…

…

…

…

  1. **Dreams**



 

He should have stopped her. He should have done something.

 

And now he could never forget her face.

 

For thirty years, Vincent dreamt and even there he could not escape reality.

…

…

…

…

  1. **Return**



 

Nanki stared up at the red towers, dirty from the sandstorms that swept the place. The moon rose from behind the village, the light from the fires the only thing visible from this distance.

 

He never thought he’d be back. He had been sure he’d die in the lab.

 

But here he was again.  He was home.

…

…

…

…

  1. **Letters**



 

“His girlfriend.” Aerith almost cried at the words, at the thought.

 

Zack had written about her to his parents. Letters upon letters, in the same way she had written to him a hundred times the past three years.

 

But he hadn’t returned and were those words a lie then? She wanted to believe that, that he had played with her heart and now he was somewhere else, living it up with someone else.

  
It was better than the alternative. Because the Zack she knew, he would never have left his parents like that unless he had died.


End file.
